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What is Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy? By Dr Jim Byrne, Revised: 21st September 2012. (Updated 15th April 2013)
Today, 20th September 2012, I have ... announced the arrival of ~~~ Introductory video clip about this page on REBT. This video clip was recorded back in July 2009, but still gives an accurate indication of the content of this page:  Click the screen above, or click on the following link: Brief introduction to REBT page.*** ~~~ Byrne, J. (2009) Rethinking the psychological models underpinning Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). Cent Paper No.1(a). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT) arose out of Dr Byrne's attempts to reconcile Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and certain other elements of therapy systems that he found useful: commencing with Transactional Analysis (TA), Zen philosophy, and later, attachment theory. It was also shaped by his discovery of some limitations of certain aspects of REBT theory. However, much of the foundations of REBT still serve as important elements of CENT. Pages: 24. Available online: Complex ABC Model of REBT*** ~~~ Postscript: Two days later, on 22nd September, this webpage crashed, and most of the information was lost. I had to reconstruct it from scratch - which was a severe test of my own ability to use REBT to keep myself calm in difficult circumstances. (It worked! :-)) ~~~ Here are some brief excerpts from a PowerPoint presentation on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) by Jeffrey T. Guterman, Ph.D. Use the pause button to stop the slides.  Click the screen above, or click this link: Jeffrey Guterman's overview of REBT.*** ~~~ One way that you can teach yourself the basics of the ABCs of REBT is to study the following booklet which I wrote in 2001:
In this manual, I want to do two things: (1) To present a basic understanding of the Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT/CBT) approach to dealing with anxiety’; and (2) To provide a set of exercises for you to do so that you can learn how to analyze your problems with anxiety; identify solutions; and implement those solutions so as to eliminate your anxiety. In that way, you can become your own “counsellor”, in the area of anxiety and fear, because you can learn to fix your own emotional and behavioural problems. If you study this easy to understand manual on the ABCs of REBT, you will develop a better than average grasp of this helpful philosophy. For further information, please go to How to control your anxiety... ~~~ What is Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy? Copyright (c) Dr Jim Byrne, 4th September 2012
REBT is in a sense a ‘philosophy of life'. The basic REBT proposition
is this: "If you give up demanding that you absolutely must get what you want, when you want it; and that you absolutely must not have to endure what you get to endure; then you will be very much happier". In a sense, it is a kind of elaboration of the Buddha's insight: "All human suffering results from desire". When we desire something we do not have, we feel some degree of frustration and difficulty about not having it. But when we desire something WE CAN NEVER HAVE, then we experience dreadful anguish, angst and perhaps grief and despair. ~~~ Dr Jeffrey Guterman has made available the transcript of a brief telephone counselling session which he transacted with Dr Albert Ellis. This is the description: Telephonic session held March 8, 1986 demonstrating Albert Ellis identifying ABC's of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) and disputing irrational beliefs. Here's the video link: Albert Ellis counsels Jeffrey Guterman using REBT...***  When this session was held, Jeffrey Guterman was a masters student in counseling and a follower of REBT. He later
became a supervisee, colleague, and friend of Albert Ellis. In the 1990s, Guterman shifted to a solution-focused approach
and developed his own model called solution-focused counseling; see http://www.jeffreyguterman.com/. Here is a transcript from this session: Ellis: Right. But what are you depressed about? ~~~ Here Ellis is disputing two prominent irrational beliefs: Awfulizing (or catastrophizing), and Low frustration tolerance (or telling one's self "I can't stand it!") ~~~ And now back to demandingness: This problem was addressed by Stoic philosophy with three principles:
2. Fatalism: This principle asserts that we are actors in a play that ‘the manager' (Providence, or Nature) directs. We do not run the show. Life is done to us, we do not do life. (This contradicts the philosophy of ‘American will', but American will is not supported by most philosophers who have considered the concept of ‘free will'). Therefore, we should accept life as it was yesterday, and how it is today, without reservation. (It SHOULD BE the way it is, because it is!) 3. Reasonable goals: This principle defines the limits of our powers. We can have some goals and aspirations, but preferably not in relation to success or wealth. Success and wealth are beyond our control, so it makes no sense to try to control what is beyond our control. Goals that we can control are: making a contribution to our family, community and society. Trying to develop our bodies and minds. And working to control our attitudes towards life. However, because Dr Albert Ellis focussed so much on the individual words that are normally used in the process of engaging in unrealistic and unreasonable or illogical demands - the words ‘should', ‘must', ‘have to', etc - he mistakenly thought of demandingness as ‘should-ing' and ‘must-ing'.
~~~ The second basic proposition of REBT is probably this: "When you engage in demandingness, you also tend, by derivation, to engage in awfulizing or catastrophizing about those things which you want and cannot get, or do not want and cannot avoid". This is normally a form of exaggeration of the degree of badness of a particular situation or event. It is very helpful if you can learn how to put a realistic numerical rating on the degree of badness of a problem, and Dr Tom Miller has developed just such a system, which is described here: Dr Tom Miller on disputing awfulizing in REBT.*** If you develop a form of realistic fatalism about the past - like Dale Carnegie's principle***: "There's no use crying over spilled milk" - you will be able to avoid a lot of awfulizing and catastrophizing, because you will accept your fate, and not rage against it. ~~~ Here's an interesting video about Dr Albert Ellis and REBT, by ThouArtThat, at Youtube. The narrator begins by taking a look at some similarities and differences between REBT and Buddhism. He makes an interesting point about the Buddhist equation of thinking with feeling, but fails to realize that Ellis has this continuum concept in his magnum opus - Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy - in 1962. The most interesting bit is when the narrator goes on to look at the problem of non-consciousness, which is not addressed adequatedly in REBT. Here's the link: Albert Ellis, REBT and Buddhism...***
~~~ Byrne, J. (2009) Beyond REBT: The case for moving on. CENT Paper No.1(b). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: For a good number of years, Dr Byrne failed to notice that REBT was strongly (if unintentionally) advocating that people ignore social norms regarding moral judgement. For example, Dr Ellis's repeated references to the claim that "Hitler was not a bad man!" And "Why must life be fair?" These seemed to be 'harmless therapeutic tools', but the time would come when they would be applied socially as guides to action or non-action. The author was finally awoken to this danger by widely circulating reports of the way in which Dr Ellis was treated in the final years of his life by some of his former colleagues; plus unsupported counter claims of immoral behaviour by Dr Ellis. Pages: 10. Available online: Beyond REBT: The birth of CENT*** ~~~ Some people think that REBT counselling and therapy is too insensitive to the client's needs, and I think that it is important to clarify this issue. Therefore, I made the following video to show that I consider empathy towards the counselling client to be one of the most important principles of good, effective counselling and therapy. This video models how to respond empathetically to a distressing problem presented by a client. Here's the video on The Role of Empathy in REBT***:
If you want to immediately see Part
2 of this video series on the ABCs of REBT, which can be found after the next section of this page, then please go here: Part 2 of the ABCs of REBT*** ~~~ In Part 1 of the ABCs of REBT, above, I tried to illustrate the importance of empathy in conducting effective REBT counselling sessions. Here, in Part 2, I make some additional comments on empathy in REBT: http://youtu.be/-LCGfKDdsUo  ~~~ Byrne,
J. (2011) Additional limitations of the ABCs of REBT.
CENT Paper No.1(c). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: CENT
has problems with the simple A>B>C model of REBT, and we have evolved a more complex model
of the ABCs, which are in line with Dr Albert Ellis’s more complex thinking from 1958-1962. The
simple A>B>C model is useful and helpful, if used cautiously. It is an oversimplification
of what happens in human functioning. It asserts that (1) something happens (at point A); then (2) the individual adopts
a belief about it (at point B); and finally (3) this results in an emotional and behavioural response (at point C).
Actually, human functioning is much more complex than this. Pages: 15. Available online: Further problems with the ABCs of REBT*** ~~~ The third basic proposition of REBT is this: "Once you have demanded something that you did not get, and then awfulized about not getting it, you will also tend to tell yourself: ‘I CANNOT STAND this kind of situation' - which will weaken your resolve and diminish your resilience". To avoid this problem, it is a good idea to teach yourself this principle: "I can stand (or bear) anything, up to, but not including, my own death. And since I will not present when my death fully arrives, I do not need to be able to stand my own death". ~~~ In Part 3 - Deepening our understanding of REBT - I clarify some additional points on the ABCs of REBT: http://youtu.be/U4IFBVfFm7g
 ~~~ The fourth principle of REBT is this: "When you are upset because of demandingness, awfulizing and telling yourself you cannot stand it (which we call low-frustration tolerance), you will then also tend to look around yourself and think: ‘Somebody around here ought to be condemned and damned as rotten and worthless. Let's see; is it me; is it you; or is it the way the world works'." This principle is called the ‘condemning and damning' tendency. Fatalism would dictate that we should accept whatever life delivers to us, (despite our attempts to control the controllable!), and not rage against it. But what if some individual harms our interests in some way? What then? According to Albert Ellis, we should accept them unconditionally. In CENT theory we do not accept anybody unconditionally, even our vaunted ‘selves'. That would be, in our view, a form of immoral lunacy. Instead, we advocate one-conditional acceptance of self and other people. And that one principle is this: So long as a person is sincerely trying to be a moral person, we should accept their imperfections in the areas of competence, efficiency and general reasoning. So by all means distinguish between yourself and your behaviours, and do not assume you are a bad person because you have been inefficient or ineffective. If you have accidentally screwed up, give yourself a break. But if you decide to harm the interests of another person, for personal gain, then you should not accept yourself. You should not let yourself off the hook. You should call yourself to account, and recommit yourself to being a fundamentally moral person. There can be no happiness or sound mental health in the absence of a commitment to live your life as a moral person. ~~~ End of update: Dr Jim Byrne - jim.byrne@abc-counselling.com Telephone: 44 1422 843 629 (from outside the UK); 01422 843 629 (inside the UK) ~~~ Announcement Now you can become a Charter Member and Diplomate of the Institute for Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy, which includes substantial elements of REBT and TA, amongst other elements. Please see the Membership Services page.*** For further information, please email: jim.byrne@abc-counselling.com ~~~ Dr Albert Ellis and Gloria In the video clip that follows, Albert Ellis works with Gloria, in a famous counselling encounter. (She also worked with Fritz Perls and Carl Rogers; in the same series of video clips). This videotape series, entitled Three Approaches to Psychotherapy was released in 1965.In the video clip that follows, you will find the session in which Ellis tries to help Gloria with her problems with romantic relationships, using REBT (or Rational Therapy, as it was then).  Click the screen above, or click the link that follows: http://youtu.be/2xFfdshNKYk ~~~ Byrne, J. (2011) On the Conceptual Errors of Bond and Dryden (1996): or how to scientifically validate the central hypotheses of REBT. CENT Paper No.1(d). Heben Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: This paper was origianlly written as ABC Occasional Paper No.7, and published six years before the first CENT paper above, in August 2003. This document was designed as the first of several inquiries into the nature and veracity of Bond and Dryden's (1996) critique of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). (See also CENT Paper No.1(a) above). The author was convinced that REBT could be effectively defended against these criticisms, and that the work of Dr Albert Ellis could be shown to be beyond reproach. In practice, this document identified some conceptual errors on the part of Drs Bond and Dryden, but also some ambiguous formulations of his ideas by Dr Albert Ellis. Pages: 90. Available online: Conceptual errors of Bond and Dryden (1996)*** ~~~ ~~~ Over the years, the previous video clip, with Albert Ellis counselling Gloria - (and the two with Rogers and Perls) - have been used to teach thousands of psychology and counselling students, all over the world. Students have often written up their evaluations of Ellis, and published them online. What follows - entitled: the "Psychology In Seattle Podcast" - is in that tradition. Here you will hear three individuals, in 2011, commenting upon what they have learned from watching the Ellis/Gloria video clip. The discussion is hosted by Kirk Honda.  These individuals discuss the relative approaches of Ellis, Perls and Rogers in their counselling sessions with Gloria. Kirk Honda speaks in favour of an eclectic approach, integrating the best ideas and techniques available from different traditions of counseling and therapy. To hear this discussion, please click the screen above, or go to this link: http://youtu.be/psFaSkm-8co ~~~ Byrne, J. (2010) Fairness, Justice and Morality Issues in REBT and CENT. CENT Paper No.2(b). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: A CENT therapist cannot ignore problems of social injustice. It would be immoral for a therapist to always assume their clients are wrong in claiming that they are being treated unfairly. It could also have a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of an individual to have their just claim for fairness dismissed out of hand by their counsellor or therapist. And in discounting claims of unfairness by a client, the therapist runs the risk of road-blocking their communication. Pages: 41. Available online: Fairness, Justice and Morality in REBT and CENT*** ~~~ WHAT IS REBT? Copyright © Jim Byrne, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010/11, 2012 New introduction to this page 1st December 2011 (Updated 1st March 2012; May 2012; 3rd and 12th June 2012) Copyright © Dr Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling. 1999-2012 Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is the original form of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) - created in the period 1953-'62, by Dr Albert Ellis, the world famous New York based clinical psychologist. To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of Dr Albert Ellis, we have posted three new papers, which can be found on the About Albert Ellis page.*** Al was impatient with the slow pace of client progress which he found when using classical psychoanalysis, or psychanalytically oriented psychotherapy. He therefore began to experiment with developing a new, more philosophical and linguistic approach to understanding his clients' problems. Out of this exploration came the ABC model, which states that people are not mainly upset by the things that happen to them, but rather that they contribute to their own disturbance by the things that they tell themselves about the things that happen to them. That seems like a very simple model of human disturbance, but it is a little more complex than that. So let me help you to get a firm grasp of the essential ingredients of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy by presenting two videos and two PowerPoint presentations which I created a few months ago for a group of doctoral students. Some little time ago, I presented a one-day workshop on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) to a group of doctoral students at the University of Manchester. In preparation for that event, I made and posted the following video clip on YouTube. Entitled REBT Theory: Three Brief Lectures, it introduces the core concepts of REBT in three relatively easy stages:
A little later, I decided to make and present a second video on REBT, this time exploring the conscious and non-conscious levels of mind. Humans are creatures of habit, and most of our moment to moment actions are based on habits which are controlled from non-conscious levels of mind. This means we need to understand not only how to change our conscious thoughts, but also how to impact our non-conscious, habitual cognitive-emotive ways of responding to events and situations. This second video is entitled Part 2 - The Basic Theory of REBT: The Horse and The Rider (or Conscious and Non-conscious thoughts) This video features Dr Tom Miller's popularization of Dr Albert Ellis's REBT system:
~~~ Byrne, J. (2010) Self-acceptance and other-acceptance in relation to competence and morality. CENT Paper No.2(c). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: Dr Byrne's stance on acceptance is this: "I do not accept you (or anybody else) unconditionally. There is no law of the universe that says I must do so! And there may be a virtual law of the universethat says I must respond (relatively) vengefully whenever anybody treats me unfairly, according to Haidt (2006). Instead of offering individuals Unconditional Acceptance, CENT therapists offer One-Conditional Acceptance: 'I will accept you totally without reserve, no matter how incompetently or inefficiently you act or think, so long as your are committed to living a moral life. That is an absolute condition of our relationship." Pages: 44. Available online: One-conditional self acceptance*** ~~~ Powerpoint Presentations on REBT In my University of Manchester seminar/workshop on REBT, I presented two PowerPoint inputs, the first of which was entitled: 'What is REBT?'. I have now uploaded that presentation, with a new soundtrack, to Author-Stream, and you can find it by clicking the link that follows. But you will also need to download a PDF document entitled 'REBT Workbook and Handouts', by clicking the link below the screen that follows: Here is the link to the downloadable REBT Workbook and Handouts PDF document. ~~~ Once you have downloaded the REBT Workbook and Handouts document, you are in a position to watch the PowerPoint above, entitled 'What is REBT?'. As you progress through that PowerPoint presentation, you will be prompted to look at specific pages in the REBT Workbook. ~~~  CENT e-book No.1: The Theoretical Grounding of CENT This 500 page PDF ebook contains the foundational ideas of Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy. In addition to covering the areas represented in the core CENT papers, it includes new updated material written specially for the book. If you want a comprehensive understanding of the foundations of CENT, then this is the book for you. (There is also, a brief, more popular presentation). Byrne, J. (2010) Therapy after Ellis, Berne, Freud and the Buddha: the birth of Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. For further information on this book, please click here. ~~~ Three distinctions between REBT and CENT: by Dr Jim Byrne In this video clip, Dr Jim Byrne distinguishes Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT) from Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) by exploring three distinctions, to do with self-acceptance, demandingness, and 'craziness' versus 'the bad wolf'.  Click the screen above, or click this link: Three Distinctions between REBT and CENT.*** ~~~ Byrne, J. (2011) Some clarifications of the parting of the ways: An open letter to Dr Albert Ellis, on the fourth anniversary of his death. CENT Paper No.12. Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Brief extract: This paper is written in the form of an open letter to Dr Albert Ellis, and this is how I defined my goals for the writing of this document: My main goals today are: (1) to honour your value as a human being, and as a great psychotherapist, who helped me, and perhaps tens of thousands of others, to get over their emotional disturbances - through your therapy sessions, books, videos, audio programs, public lectures, and (in my case) personal letters and emails; and: (2) to clarify some of the ways in which I have moved on from REBT into the somewhat overlapping territory of CENT. Pages: 18. Available online: An open letter to Albert Ellis about REBT and CENT theories*** ~~~ CENT ebook No.6 is now available:
The main aim of this book is to spread happiness. Not just any old hedonistic happiness, excitement, or thrill seeking; but rather pro-social, moral, sustainable happiness, in line with the insights of Positive psychology, Buddhist psychology, Stoic philosophy and various forms of Rational and Narrative therapy, and the two major systems of writing therapy (the scientific and the artistic). In this book you will find a twelve week program which is designed to help you to manage your life in such a way that you can reduce your unhappiness and increase your happiness. You will learn simple techniques that can produce almost immediate improvements that will astound you. Available here: Creating Joy: How to be much happier, right now! ~~~
This up-to-date comprehensive guidebook -- an all-new, revised resource for practicing therapists from the father of rational therapy -- includes thorough discussions of theory and procedures, case examples, and dozens of exercises. Modern cognitive-behavioral therapy has its roots in the rational approach created by Albert Ellis in the 1950s. Now known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Ellis's systematic, integrative approach has grown and matured into a powerful mainstream psychotherapy. Hundreds of thousands of patients have benefited from the active interventions of therapists using the REBT model. Major themes in this user-friendly manual: Theory of REBT; Practice of REBT; Main Cognitive Techniques; Main Emotive and Experiential Techniques; Main Behavioral Techniques; Integration of REBT with Other Therapies; Summary and Conclusions. Available on Amazon: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Therapist's Guide, by Albert Ellis & Catharine MacLaren ~~~ Further distinctions between REBT and CENT: by Dr Jim Byrne We need the words "should, must, have to, ought to, got to, need to" in order to sustain a moral conversation. But REBT seeks to outlaw those words. CENT distinguishes between 'moral shoulds', which are necessary and justified, and other kinds of shoulds, such as absolute shoulds, logical shoulds, and so on. This distinction is explored in this video clip: Futher Distinctions between REBT and CENT.***  ~~~ Now you can combine your REBT studies with TA, Attachment theory and other elements, and earn the Diploma in Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy, which entitles you to Charter Membership of the Institute for Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy.*** ~~~ Byrne, J. (2012) Reviewing some strengths and weaknesses of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) - and outlining some innovations. CENT Paper No.22. Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. The author explores his association with Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT); outlines some of its strengths; summarizes the main weaknesses and deficiencies in REBT; and looks at the role of Goals in human disturbance. He also explores the concept of 'human emotional needs', which is not considered valid in REBT; explores some refinements of the A>B>C model; illustrates aspects of the complex A>B>C model; and critiques the typical structure of an REBT session. He then advocates restoring the Stimulus>Organism>Response model to replace the A>B>C model; outlines the CENT session structure; and contrasts the process of 'disputing irrational beliefs' with the gentler, less conflictual process of 're-framing the problem', which is used in Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT). Available online: Reviewing some strengths and weaknesses of REBT.*** ~~~ An aside on morality and REBT I made a significant error on slide 16 of the PowerPoint presentation on REBT, shown above. I could have gone back and edited that error out. However, the reason I made the error is that none of us has had enough practice yet in talking about the way morality fits into the REBT theory. On slide 16, ‘ethics' - (and, by implication, ‘morality') - is shown to be part of the distinction labelled ‘preferential thinking', as opposed to belonging to the category of ‘demandingness'. This is how it was classified by Dr Tom Miller, who elaborated some of the implicit elements of Dr Ellis's system. But in my presentation, I disagreed with this classification, and tried to clarify that, in my view, morality is not a ‘mere preference'; it's not about ‘individual preferences'. How I expressed that disagreement, on the soundtrack of the PowerPoint presentation shown above, was by saying that "I absolutely must not harm you, and you absolutely must not harm me". However, that would put morality in the category of ‘demandingness', which would be an error. Actually the correct distinction is a three-way split: 1. Preferential thinking: Examples: "I wish... I want... I would like..." etc; 2. Unreasonable or unrealistic demands: Examples: "You absolutely must be competent; I absolutely must not disappoint you; and the world absolutely must give me all the cream cakes I want"; and: 3. Moral injunctions - or categorical (moral) requirements: Examples: "I (morally) must not harm you and your legitimate interests; and you (morally) must not harm me and my legitimate interests". Categorical moral requirements are more than preferences - they are required of us, logically and realistically, using the tests devised by Immanuel Kant. However, they are not "absolute requirements" in the sense that "absolute" is used in relation to "laws of the universe". Water "absolutely" must turn into steam when it reaches a certain temperature. However, with morality, even though nobody has the right to harm me, and all humans are required by moral law not to harm me, that will not necessarily stop somebody from acting immorally towards me. But it is by no means the case that they are merely breaching my preference. They are breaching the Golden Rule, and acting in a way that cannot be promulgated as a universal rule, because to advocate a universal rule that anybody may harm anybody they wish, when they wish it, would herald the rapid demise of social cohesion and the end of society. Because Albert Ellis failed to make this distinction, REBT has often been seen to promote amorality, and sometimes immorality, largely by default. Dr Ellis himself has said that nobody should ever be blamed for anything, which does not make sense in terms of maintaining a moral and legal system which is essential for the cohesion of any kind of culture. And Dr Ellis failed to see that there are forms of appropriate and inappropriate guilt. He saw all guilt as being neurotic or irrational; while I see guilt as one of the main moral emotions which helps to keep our ‘good wolf' on track in terms of its social behaviours. I will discuss this point further later on. In the meantime, you might want to take a look at: Byrne, J. (2009) Beyond REBT: The case for moving on. CENT Paper No.1(b). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Available online: http://www.abc-counselling.com/id165.html Byrne, J. (2011) Additional limitations of the ABCs of REBT. CENT Paper No.1(c). Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Available online: http://www.abc-counselling.com/id301.html. ~~~ A brief demonstration of Three Minute Therapy for Depression - by Dr. Michael Edelstein Dr Michael Edelstein presents a role play simulation (with a friend) to illustrate how he uses REBT to help clients get over their depression in his brief (3 minute) therapy format.  To watch this video clip, please click the yellow screen above, or click the following link: Three Minute Therapy for Depression.*** ~~~Or take a look at this: Using REBT to resolve problems of anxiety:
In this manual, I want to do two things: (1) To present a basic understanding of the Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT/CBT) approach to dealing with anxiety’; and (2) To provide a set of exercises for you to do so that you can learn how to analyze your problems with anxiety; identify solutions; and implement those solutions so as to eliminate your anxiety. In that way, you can become your own “counsellor”, in the area of anxiety and fear, because you can learn to fix your own emotional and behavioural problems. For further information, please go to How to control your anxiety... ~~~ Byrne, J. (2012) My final farewell to Dr Albert Ellis: An open letter. CENT Paper No.23. Hebden Bridge: The Institute for CENT. Just as on previous anniversaries of the death of Dr Albert Ellis, I feel the need to communicate with that part of Al which is still stuck in my mind. I am striving to achieve completion with that part of him, and I believe I have finally achieved it with this open letter. Just as on previous anniversaries of the death of Dr Albert Ellis, I feel the need to communicate with that part of Al which is still stuck in my mind. I am striving to achieve completion with that part of him, and I believe I have finally achieved it with this open letter. Available online: Final Farewell to Albert Ellis...*** ~~~ Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), by Dr Jeffrey Guterman Jeffrey Guterman describes the theory and practice of Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) across the following issues: human nature, theory of problem formation, theory of change, and techniques. Topics include the ABC theory, the distinction between rational beliefs and irrational beliefs, and disputing irrational beliefs. See http://www.jeffreyguterman.com/ for more information. Erratum: About half way through the video (at 04:55), Jeffrey Guterman incorrectly uses the term "irrational beliefs" to refer to "preferences, wishes, hopes, desires, likes, and wants..." when it was his intention to refer to "rational beliefs." Here's the link to the clip: Albert Ellis's REBT.***  ~~~ Or take a look at this: Using REBT
to resolve problems of anxiety:
In this manual, I want to do two things: (1) To present a basic understanding of the Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT/CBT) approach to dealing with anxiety’; and (2) To provide a set of exercises for you to do so that you can learn how to analyze your problems with anxiety; identify solutions; and implement those solutions so as to eliminate your anxiety. In that way, you can become your own “counsellor”, in the area of anxiety and fear, because you can learn to fix your own emotional and behavioural problems. For further information, please go to How to control your anxiety... ~~~
There are very few really good video demonstrations of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy which can be shown freely on the internet. There are some good demonstrations for sale, but not for free. The adjacent demonstration, by a group of students at the University of Texas, at Austin, seems to me to be a fairly good illustration of some of the key features of how REBT is often used by some therapists. (There is probably a wide variety of approaches in use regarding how to implement the theory of REBT in practice). Take a look at this demonstration and see what you think. ~~~ REBT distinguishes between overly-upset emotions and reasonable upsets. Anxiety is an overly-upset emotion, while the appropriate, reasonable level of upset, when an individual faces an impending threat or danger is concern. The drivers that determine whether a person will experience excessive anxiety or reasonable levels of concern are called 'rational and irrational beliefs' in REBT:
Book review: Rational and Irrational Beliefs: Research, Theory, and Clinical Practice, Edited by Daniel David, Steven Jay Lynn and Albert Ellis In Rational and Irrational Beliefs: Research, Theory, and Clinical Practice, leading scholars, researchers, and practitioners of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) and other cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs) share their perspectives and empirical findings on the nature of rational and irrational beliefs, the role of beliefs as mediators of functional and dysfunctional emotions and behaviors, and clinical approaches to modifying irrational beliefs, enhancing rational beliefs, and adaptive coping in the face of stressful life events. Offering a comprehensive and cohesive approach to understanding REBT/CBT and its central constructs of rational and irrational beliefs, contributors review a steadily accumulating empirical literature indicating that irrational beliefs are associated with a wide range of problems in living and that exposure to rational self-statements can decrease anxiety and other psychological symptoms, and play a valuable role in health promotion and disease prevention. Contributors also identify new frontiers of research and theory, including the link between irrational beliefs and other cognitive processes such as memory, psychophysiological responses, and evolutionary and cultural determinants of rational and irrational beliefs. A truly accessible, state-of-the-science summary of REBT/CBT research and clinical applications, Rational and Irrational Beliefs is an invaluable resource for psychotherapy practitioners of all theoretical orientations, as well as instructors, students, and academic psychologists. ~~~ The purpose of this book is to
teach the reader what stress is, and how to combat it. It is written in the form of a self-help manual, with spaces for self-reflection
exercises. However, it could also be used by counsellors, counselling students, and interested others, as a means to learn,
understand and present the CENT approach to Stress Management in counselling, coaching and therapy contexts. ~~~ The structure of REBT sessions Almost halfway down this page, I have posted the second PowerPoint which I presented on 16th November, at the University of Manchester, on The Standard Structure for an REBT Session. I have placed it further down this page, because it would be to your advantage to review some more basic elaborations of the core elements of the system of REBT before moving on to look at session structures. ~~~ For Counselling and Psychotherapy Practitioners If you are practicing counseling and therapy, and you want to get some audio-visual guidance on how to incorporate elements of REBT into your practice, you might like to explore:
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, a cornerstone of psychotherapy since the 1950s, is based on the principle that individuals can change their behavior by changing their thinking patterns. Hazelden's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Program (REBT) guides treatment clients in developing the capacity to identify and choose positive alternatives to negative thoughts and actions. Available at Amazon: The REBT DVD for Counselling and Therapy Practitioners ~~~ ~~~
This is a popular introduction to the theory and practice of Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT), which is a highly effective new philosophy of life, and psychological system of therapy. This book was designed to answer the most common questions asked by counsellors, psychologists, psychotherapists, counselling and therapy students, counselling and therapy clients, and self-help enthusiasts, about the nature of CENT: how to learn it; and how to apply it in practice, to individual counselling, couple's therapy, and self management. The main aim is to demonstrate CENT counselling in practice; and in the process you will learn something about how to integrate and apply CBT/REBT, Transactional Analysis (TA), Attachment Theory, Object Relations and Zen philosophy and Moral philosophy. For further information on this book, please click here. ~~~ Using REBT to cure depression If you want an insight into how to use REBT to cure depression, including a video description by Dr Jim Byrne, then please take a look at the One Page Solution for Depression.*** ~~~ Previous introduction to this page: Here is a quick video introduction to this page. This clip was made in 2009, when we were preparing for the third anniversary of the death of Dr Albert Ellis***,the creator of REBT. The fourth anniversary has now come and gone Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) was the original form of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). It was created in the 1950s by Dr Albert Ellis, a world-famous psychologist based in New York City.
The core of Ellis's therapy was reasoning, and self persuasion. In particular, looking for the ways in which we are exaggerating how bad our lot is, and reducing our upset by ‘disputing' our exaggerations. He himself said the core of his orientation in the world was: reason, humour and scepticism. In his first paper on Rational Therapy (Ellis, 1958) he lists twelve "irrational beliefs" that humans use to disturb themselves. Here are the first two:
His conviction at this time (1958 - 1962) was that people disturbed themselves by the way they talked to themselves, in simple declarative sentences. However, over time, this changed, and now it must be said that REBT does not focus exclusively on the client's self-talk, but on the interplay of feeling, behaviour and thinking. So a client is assumed to be able to control their presenting problem by changing their thinking, feeling or behaviour. By changing one, it is assumed the other two will follow suit.
Sometime later, perhaps in the late 1960s or early 70s, Dr Ellis created the ABC model of human disturbance. This was inspired by the neo-Behaviourist S-O-R model (Stimulus>Organism>Response). The S-O-R model said that an incoming stimulus at the boundary of an organism (animal/human) is processed to produce an appropriate response (R). Initially, the A>B>C model said something similar:
~~~ Let us clarify this a little further
This can be shown diagramatically, as follows, using the example of a threat or danger triggering concern and/or anxiety:
# Here is an illustration of how to ask a client for an ABC problemin REBT...***
The idea here is that if the person held an ‘Irrational belief', then their (C) Consequent emotional and behavioural response would be an ‘over-upset', or ‘disturbance' - such as feeling and acting in an angry, anxious or depressed way. On the other hand, if the person held a ‘Rational belief', then their (C) Consequent emotional and behavioural response would be a ‘reasonable upset' - such as feeling and acting in an irritated or concerned way.
Dr Ellis also emphasized giving up four kinds of irrationality:
He particularly emphasized the need to get rids of ‘shoulds' about things that are unchangeable (at this point in time). And refusing to condemn and damn ourselves, others and the world when they show up as bad for us.
Ellis continually refined and updated his models, and, sometime in the 1980s, the ABC model was expanded to the G-A-B-C-D-E model as follows:
A = Activating Event: Something happens to thwart a person's goals. B = Belief system: The frustrated individual responds with either a rational belief (RB) or an irrational belief (IB) to the noxious activating event (at ‘A'). C = Consequence: As a consequence of the interaction of the ‘A' and the ‘B', the individual experiences a particular level and kind of emotional arousal (at point ‘C' in the model). D = Debating and disputingirrational beliefs: If the individual is overly-upset about this particular ‘A', they can debate and dispute their irrational beliefs (IBs) with an REBT therapist - or teach themselves to debate and dispute their IBs.
E = Effective new philosophy: As a result of debating and disputing their irrational beliefs (IBs) and replacing them with a set of rational beliefs (IBs) the client is then said to be in possession of an (E) or Effective new philosophy, which they must review and review and review, over and over and over again, to get it into their long-term memory, and to overwrite their original irrational beliefs (IBs).
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~~~ A video overview Will Ross has produced an excellent video overview of the theory of REBT, which follows (copyright Will Ross):  Will's video is one of the best, most comprehensive video overviews of the ABCs of REBT. And now I will present an academic assignment of my own on REBT, which shows some further elaboration of the ABCs of rationality and irrationality, including further illustrative models; plus a couple of case examples of disturbances and how to correct them (using myself as the model); plus a description of the therapist-client relationship in REBT:
Most of the disputing questions presented above are particularly helpful in disputing 'demandingness' - as when the client holds absolute shoulds, absolute musts, etc. The emphasis on irrational beliefs in REBT shifted in the mid 1970s, from the idea that people mainly disturb themselves by 'awfulizing' - or exaggerating the degree of badness of the bad events in their lives - to demandingness (or 'musturbation' as Albert Ellis liked to call it!) Somewhere in the early 1990s, Dr Tom Miller developed a method of measuring the degree of badness of noxious Activating Events (or 'A's). I adapted that method for use with my own clients, and wrote about it in my booklet entitled 'Overcoming Fear and Anxiety'. Here is a link to Appendix 'C' of that booklet:
If you want to go deeper into the philosophy of REBT, then why not read Albert Ellis's essay: If you want a detailed application of the GABCDE model, from beginning to end, applied to practical, everyday problems, then please take a look at: And if you want a more detailed destription of how Dr Ellis and his acolytes did their assessment and teaching role in counselling contexts, then:
~~~ Second extract from my University of Manchester presentation The structure of REBT sessions Let me now present the PowerPoint presentation entitled Standard Structure for an REBT Therapy Session, which I presented on 16th November. In this presentation, I use the example of a client from about five or six years ago, who had been expelled from a political party, and who was depressed about her loss and failure. You will need to have your REBT Workbook, from above, before you begin to watch this presentation.
~~~ Further elaborations of REBT theory, by Dr Jim Byrne I now want to provide a more in-depth presentation of the theory of REBT. Since it is an extensive theory, which has subtly different ways of dealing with different distressing emotions, I will stick to the example of REBT applied to anger management. What follows is an extract from my latest paper on CENT; specifically the REBT contribution to anger management: Extract from CENT Paper No.11: 'Understanding anger in yourself and other people: What the experts say': Dr Albert Ellis's most comprehensive book on anger was co-authored with Chip Tafrate, in 1998[1]. REBT is a very good and effective approach to anger management, in my experience, working as a counsellor/psychotherapist, where I have used it extensively for more than twelve years. (See also Ellis's earlier book on anger management from 1986[2], which emphasizes using logic and reason to combat the emotion of anger). Dr Ellis's approach begins with the ABC model, which has three parts: The ‘A' = Activating Event, (something unpleasant happens: such as frustration while driving on a busy street, or somebody keeps you waiting for a meeting in a public place); The ‘B' = Belief, (which means you can either respond with a ‘rational'[3] or ‘irrational'[4] belief about this frustration); and: C = Consequent emotions, (which will be anger if you adopt an irrational belief about that frustration, as defined in the footnote below). In REBT theory, the C (Consequences) of a noxious activating event (at point A in the model) can be either an "unhealthy negative emotion" (like anger) or a "healthy negative emotion" (like irritation or annoyance". (Ellis and Tafrate, 1998)[5]. Healthy negative emotions (which involve irritation and annoyance) are said to be caused by "rational beliefs" (which include preferential thinking); while unhealthy negative emotions (like anger) are said to be caused by"irrational beliefs" (like making absolute demands on one's self, others and/or the world).
The biggest offenders in the field of irrational beliefs are: absolute must's, should's, have to's, ought to's, got to's, need to's; or telling ourselves it's ‘awful, terrible, horrible, catastrophic'; or concluding that ‘I can't stand it/ bear it/ tolerate it'; and you (the person frustrating me) are ‘a rotten individual, a bad person, a louse, a worm, a bitch, a bastard;and so on. (See Ellis and Tafrate, 1998, pages 40-43). It might be that it is the element of ‘damnation' of the other person that most reliably triggers the emotion of anger. (Ellis and Dryden, 1999; page 21)[6]. ~~~ Here is Part 1 of my own three part series on Deepening our Understanding of the ABCs of REBT: ~~~ Indeed, although REBT therapists and theorists mainly reduce the irrational beliefs to four[7]- which are: demandingness; awfulizing; low frustration tolerance; and condemning and damning of self, others and the world - there were originally about a dozen irrational beliefs listed in Ellis (1958, 1962)[8]. In Ellis (1994) eleven irrational beliefs occur[9]. Upon reading those eleven irrational beliefs, it might seem that number three is the best candidate for inducing anger. It reads: "People absolutely must act considerately and fairly and they are damnable villains if they do not. They are their bad acts". However, many of the others could equally induce anger in an individual; for example, irrational belief number one says: "It is a dire necessity for adult humans to be loved or approved by virtually every significant other person in their community". If somebody fails to approve of you, you could damn them, and make yourself angry at them. (See chapter 4 of Ellis, 1994). The main types of inferences[10] which most often trigger irrational beliefs which then directly cause anger are as follows: (1) Frustration; as when somebody frustrates your goals or intentions. Or they could frustrate you by not accepting, admiring or liking you as much as you believe they should. (2) Transgression (or breaking) of your personal rules (by yourself or others); as when somebody does something you think should never be done. An example could be, parking in your parking space; or not returning something they borrowed from you. (3) Threats to your self-esteem or your personal domain; as when somebody openly and effectively criticizes you in front of your boss, your colleagues or your friends; or tries to invade your personal space or to take something that belongs to you. So if you feel frustrated by the behaviour (or lack of action) of a significant other person, such as a partner, boss, employee, friend, etc., (or even a stranger, such as another driver blocking your exit on the street), you are likely to trigger an irrational belief about that frustration, which in turn will directly cause you to feel anger. (In other words, the anger is not directly caused by what happens to you, but by what you tell yourself about that event! Or, more accurately, what you tell yourself about your inferences about that event!) And the most common irrational belief in this situation is probably that "They absolutely should not be blocking my goals in this way, and they are bad individuals for doing this". Result, anger! ~~~ If you
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~~~ There are very few publicly available audio or video recordings of Albert Ellis demonstrating REBT, but here is an example in which he works with Jeffrey Guterman over the telephone in the 1980s: ~~~ Here is a more detailed breakdown of the REBT model of anger causation:
Table 1: The Inferences That Trigger Anger-Inducing IBs The main types of inferences which most often trigger the type of irrational beliefs which then directly cause anger are listed in box 3.1, in Appendix ‘C', and are as follows: (1) Frustration; (2) Self or other transgresses personal rule; (3) Threat to self-esteem. So if you feel frustrated by the behaviour (or lack of action) of a significant other person, such as a partner, boss, employee, friend, etc., (or even a stranger, such as another driver blocking your exit on the street), you are likely to trigger an irrational belief about that frustration, which in turn will directly cause you to feel anger. (In other words, the anger is not caused by what happens to you, but by what you tell yourself about that event! And what you tell yourself about your inferences about that event!) The same effect will ensue if you or someone else transgresses one of your personal rules, and you happen to have irrational beliefs about that personal rule. And finally, if you experience any event as a threat to your self-esteem, then you are likely to trigger any irrational belief you have about such threats, which will in turn directly cause you to feel angry.
The Same Inferences Can Trigger Rational Beliefs (RBs) and Irrational Beliefs (IBs) Now the interesting thing here is this: The same inferences which trigger your irrational beliefs will actually trigger rational beliefs if you have worked hard enough to eliminate your irrational beliefs. That is to say, for example, if you dispute[11] your irrational beliefs about being frustrated, for a sufficiently long period of time, you will find that when you become frustrated in the future you will only feel (helpfully) irritated and annoyed; not angry. It is therefore obvious that different consequences flow from the same inferences, depending on what your beliefs are: rational or irrational. For further detail on the REBT approach to anger management, please see Appendices ‘C', ‘D1' and ‘D2' attached. Appendix ‘C' is a basic introduction to the ABCs of REBT applied to anger. Appendix ‘D1' is an elaboration of the ideas contained in Appendix ‘C'. And Appendix ‘D2' is a list of questions for ‘disputing' irrational beliefs that trigger angry responses. Here is a very brief introduction to the kinds of questions used in debating, disputing and trying to change irrational beliefs, applied specifically to the inferences that are implicated in the causation of angry responses. Fuller explanations can be found in the appendices specified below. Disputing Irrational Beliefs
...continued on next page...
Ellis and Tafrate (1998) argue that people who act angrily may often be acting in response to a previous feeling, such as feelings of shame: (Ellis and Tafrate, 1998, page 68). If somebody puts us down, we may first feel ashamed, and then want to hurt them (those bar-stewards) for having hurt us (which they "should not" have done). For this reason they advocate shame-attacking exercises. They also point out that people may anger themselves because they suffer from "deep-seated feelings of unassertiveness" (page 68). In other words, because they do not feel able to assert themselves reasonably with somebody who frustrates them, they then escalate their emotions to the level of anger, which may come out in the form of indirect aggression. For this reason, they advocate self-assertion training for angry people. REBT does not restrict itself to thinking strategies for avoiding anger. It also advocates (1) learning how to relax; (2) feeling your way out of an angry situation; (3) acting your way out of anger (which comes down to ‘forcing yourself to act differently than you feel'); and (4) additional miscellaneous ways to reduce your anger. Firstly, regarding feeling your way out of anger, REBT recommends the use of Rational Emotive Imagery (REI). This is how it works: 1. Close your eyes and imagine the noxious activating event, or ‘A' (Somebody has frustrated you; or insulted you; or broken one of your important personal rules). 2. Check on the ‘C' (Emotional consequence): How do you feel in your chest and your guts? Are your fists clenched? Is your body tense? Is your face flushed? Get in touch with all those feelings and sensations. Feel it as intensely as you can. 3. Now, without changing anything about the activating event (‘A'), change your emotional response (‘C') by calming your body and mind. 4. Now ask yourself, ‘Which of my anger-inducing irrational beliefs did I change in order to calm down? Was it my demands; or my awfulizing; or condemning and damning the other person? Or giving up the idea that ‘I cannot stand this?' Secondly, I want to summarize the additional ways that are recommended by Ellis and Tafrate (1998) for reducing your anger. This is my rendition of that list, with some augmentation by me: # Learn to accept that you are "senselessly enraged" rather than "sensibly annoyed", and stop damning and accusing others. # Recognize that some of the effect of your anger comes from outside, but that you can either minimize or maximize that outside irritant. Choose to minimize it. # Learn to accept that you can definitely control your angry feelings, and set out to do so. # Recognize that anger and rage do more harm than good to you and your closest relatives and associates. # Keep trying and trying to reduce your anger and rage. Then: # Review the practical results of your anger. What is it costing you? What are the benefits? Is it worth it to you? # Learn to expect frustrations and insults, and determine to be resistant to them. Strengthen your frustration tolerance and laugh off insults. # Identify and challenge any tendency towards narcissism and grandiosity in yourself. "Much anger stems from childish grandiosity". # Challenge your anger-inducing interpretations. Do you think the other person is deliberately trying to frustrate you? You may be wrong. Were they deliberately trying to insult you? Probably not. Did they intend to be unfair? You cannot know unless you assertively challenge their words/actions. Then you might find out your interpretation of their motives was wrong all along. # Work at reducing your feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. This means working on your sense of self esteem, self respect and self confidence. # Avoid drugs and alcohol. It is very hard to be calm and rational once you take intoxicating drugs. (The TA view is that the first part of you to be knocked out by alcohol is your Parent ego state,which includes your conscience! The next part to go is your Adult ego state, which helps you reason and make logical decisions! You are then left with the mind of a child and the body of an adult. Not a great recipe for avoiding anger and rage!) # Recognize that other people are imperfect and error-prone. Do not expect them to behave perfectly. # Reduce your self-righteous indignation. What makes you so sure you are better than them? Do you have any real evidence? (CENT would say that you both have a Good Wolf and a Bad Wolf side to your nature and character. Will your getting angry with them bring out their Good Wolf, or will it not merely entrench their Bad Wolf? And how can you be so sure you are not, now, acting from Bad Wolf in your righteous indignation?) # Recognize the irony of hatred, which is that you damage your own body and mind by your state of anger, and the ‘target' of your anger feels none of that. Or, as somebody once said: "Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die!" Or, as the Buddha is said to have observed: Anger is like a hot coal that burns the person who throws it! #Adopt humanistic values. This is how Ellis and Tafrate (1998) describe this step: "To acquire a more humanistic philosophy, remember that you abhor needless mistreatment; that most people feel the same way; that concern for others tends to bring about the kind of conditions that you would like; and that treating others well in spite of their unfairness has challenging, self-growth elements. Without being a Florence Nightingale or St. Francis, you can find real satisfaction in trying to make the world a little better a place in which to live. Complete self-interest can become monotonous and boring. A vital, absorbing interest in something outside yourself, as REBT has shown since its inception, adds to long-range happiness. Devotion to a community or social cause helps you - as well as the human race". (Pages 140-141). # Imagine how pained your opponents are going to be by your anger. Have some pity for their feelings. As Lao Tzu used to say: ‘Dealing with people is like cooking very small fish! If you are not careful, you will break them!' Or at least damage them. Inhibit your rage by thinking of the pain you will cause. # If you want to have good relationships with others, you have not only got to give up making them wrong; you have to give up enraging yourself at them, and hurting them. ~~~
~~~
[1] Ellis, A. and Tafrate, R. (1998) How to Control Your Anger before it Controls You. New York: Carol Publishing. [2] Ellis, A. (1986) Anger: How to Live With and Without It. New York: Citadel Press. [3]As defined in REBT, a ‘rational belief' is one that takes this form: "I would prefer it if this person did not (frustrate me, or break my personal rules, etc); it's reasonably bad (say 10% bad) that they do; I can stand a 10% bad situation; and it does not make them a ‘wholly bad person' that they have (frustrated me, or broken my personal rules). [4] Again, in the language of REBT, an ‘irrational belief' is one that takes the following form: "This event (frustration, breaking of personal rules, etc) must not be happening; its awful (meaning totally bad) that it is; I cannot stand such an outrage; and the person who is (frustrating me, or breaking my personal rules) should be condemned and damned as rotten and worthless!". [5]Ellis, A. and Tafrate, R. (1998) How to Control Your Anger before it Controls You. New York: Carol Publishing. Chapter 4. [6] Ellis, A. and Dryden, W. (1999) The Practice of REBT. Second edition. London: Free Association Press. [7] Ellis and Tafrate (1998), page 52. [8] Ellis, A. (1958). Rational Psychotherapy, Journal of General Psychology, 59, 35-49. And: Ellis A. (1962). Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, New York, Carol Publishing. [9] Ellis A. (1994). Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, Revised Edition. New York, Carol Publishing. [10] An inference is a conclusion. However in REBT it is defined as a "non-evaluative" conclusion. Beliefs are said to be evaluative. Some REBT theorists concern themselves with the inferences that trigger rational or irrational beliefs. In terms of REBT theory of anger causation, Ellis and Tafrate (1998) do not discuss such inferences. Ellis and Dryden (1999) discuss inferences, but not specifically in relation to anger induction. The anger-inducing inferences discussed in this book are described in pages 12 and 13 (including Table 1) of Dryden, W. (1999) Rational Emotive Behavioural Counselling in Action. Second edition. London: Sage. [11]"Disputing irrational beliefs", as described in Appendices ‘B' and ‘C' of this book, means challenging the validity of a particular belief on the basis of asking: Is this belief logical? Is it proven? Is it self-helping? ~~~ If you like this page, why
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~~~ Here is Part 2 of my three part series on the ABCs of REBT: Ellis also created: - The distinction between ego disturbances and discomfort disturbances, which can be helpful. - The distinction that he made between ‘reasonably upset emotions’, like concern, sadness, irritation; and ‘overly upset emotions’, like anxiety, depression, anger, etc. - His argument against self-esteem and in favour of self-acceptance. - Like Werner Erhard, a generation after him, Ellis considered that ‘insight’ (so loved by Freud and his psychoanalytic followers) was the booby prize, and did not change anything much for the client/patient. (The CENT view says that insight without action is worthless; but action without insight is blind!) - Instead, Ellis advocated the use of cognitive, emotive and behavioural techniques to help the client to talk themselves out of their problematic emotional and behavioural situations. The cognitive techniques involve asking questions about the logic, reasonableness and usefulness of particular beliefs/attitudes. The behavioural approaches involve desensitization by forcing yourself to behave differently than you feel. And the emotive approaches include ‘shame attacking exercises’ and ‘rational humorous songs’. ~~~ Here is an illustration of his Rational Humorous Songs, as I sing three of my favourites! :-) We have now reviewed the simple ABC model of REBT. However, the reality is more complex than is indicated by the simple model. This was brought out in 1996, when Windy Dryden and Frank Bond challenged some core concepts of REBT. In 2003, Dr Jim Byrne took on that challenge and produced a new review of the complex ABCs of REBT.*** See also my page on Common Misunderstandings of the ABCs of REBT - 'Blaming the Victim'... Ultimately, even though REBT is a very powerful therapeutic philosophy, like all human philosophies it has its weaknesses. These are explored in a paper entitled: Beyond REBT - The birth of CENT.*** I have also written a subsequent paper on 'Additional limitations of the ABCs of REBT'.*** And here is a link to a video clip in which I explore the distinction between 'moral shoulds' and other kinds of shoulds. One of the biggest weaknesses of REBT is that it argued against all uses of 'demands'. But moral demands (or prescriptions and proscriptions) are not only reasonable and justified - "You (morally) must not kill me, or harm me in any way!" - they are absolutely essential for the continuance of a civilized society. Take a look and see what you think:
~~~ If you have reviewed all the material on this page, and the attachments, and you still have some outstanding questions on the nature and/or application of REBT, then you can ask Dr Jim Byrne to produce a written answer to your questions. This is a bespoke service, offered at cost price in terms of the number of hours needed to do the work. To get a quotation for this work, please send an email to Jim, describing the question(s) you want answered, and the kind of content you require - length, depth, detail, etc. Send your email request to Dr Jim Byrne at: jim.byrne@abc-counselling.com. ~~~
In this manual, I want to do two things: (1) To present a basic understanding of the Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT/CBT) approach to dealing with anxiety’; and (2) To provide a set of exercises for you to do so that you can learn how to analyze your problems with anxiety; identify solutions; and implement those solutions so as to eliminate your anxiety. In that way, you can become your own “counsellor”, in the area of anxiety and fear, because you can learn to fix your own emotional and behavioural problems. For further information, please go to How to control your anxiety... ~~~
The Institute for CENT agreed to publish this somewhat fictionalized memoir of childhood in Ireland because of its psychologically curative potential. All humans live within stories, and stories are the medium through which we understand ourselves and each other. And some stories contribute greatly to our emotional development and maturity. For further information about this book, see this memorir of childhood in Ireland ~~~
CENT e-book No.2: CENT Counselling: How to apply Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy in Counselling and Self-help This is a popular introduction to the theory and practice of Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT), which is a highly effective new philosophy of life, and psychological system of therapy. For further information on this book, please click here. ~~~ Forthcoming Books on CENT There are also three other books on applied CENT in the pipeline: 7. *Coming sooner*: Marital Bliss: How to be a great couple. By Dr Jim Byrne. Hebden Bridge: I-CENT Publications. 8. *Coming Soon*: How to Control Your Anger: A holistic/CENT approach. By Dr Jim Byrne. Hebden Bridge: I-CENT publications. Description: This book is presently being expanded and rewritten. 9. Think Your Way to Improved Self Confidence. By Dr Jim Byrne. Heben Bridge: I-CENT Publications. Description: This book is currently scheduled for complete revision. ~~~ ♣ For information about the nature of CENT counselling, please take a look at 'What is CENT?' ♣ Or, take a look at the Counselling and therapy all over the world... page ~~~ And finally, Part 3 of my three part series on the ABCs of REBT: Please take a look at the Institute for Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT). Or take a look at: ~~~ To recommend this website to friends and colleagues, please use this button:
~~~ If you would like to study a combination of REBT, Attachment Theory, Transactional Analysis, and other elements, then take a look at the Diploma in Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy, which will qualify you for Charter Membership of the Institute for Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy.*** ~~~
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This page on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) has existed since 1999, and it has gone through a number of significant
changes in that time. This page exists to make the teaching and learning of the core concepts of REBT widely available
to the largest number of potential learners.
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is a system of counselling and therapy which was developed by Dr Albert Ellis, in
New York City, in the period 1953-62, and further developed in a number of stages over the following forty years.
1. The dichotomy of control: This principle asserts that there are certain things you can control and certain things
you can't. You must not try to control the uncontrollable, or else you will be endlessly unhappy. (Therefore,
if you cannot have something, do not insist that you MUST have it! If you cannot control it, do not desire it!) This
principle was also shared by Buddhist philosophy.
However, in CENT theory, we insist that we need the words ‘should' and ‘must' to describe our moral rules.
Therefore, in CENT we do not talk about ‘should-ing' etc. We mainly use the original Stoic concept of the dichotomy
of control. There are certain things we can control and certain things we can't. And demanding that we absolutely
must be able to get something that is beyond our control is a form of self-upsetting madness!
Creating Joy: How to be much happier, right now!
CENT e-book No.3: How
to Reduce and Control Your Stress Level, and to Have a Happier Life:
The CENT approach
REBT arguably owes more to Stoic and Buddhist philosophy than it does to modern psychology, though it took full account of
the insights of cognitive psychology at its foundation (Ellis, 1962). Ellis studied philosophy from the age of sixteen years,
and combined his studies with the use of behaviour modification techniques to cope with his own problems of social anxiety.
He then used his emerging philosophy of life to help his friends with their relationship and sex/love problems. 
Despite this complexity of REBT, in practice it is often simplified back to the question: "What are you telling
yourself to make yourself unhappy/angry/anxious?" This simplistic approach to human disturbance is critiqued
further down this page.
G = Goals: Humans have goals, to survive, be free from pain, and to be happy. 
